Resources created by Mr Burrowes for use in lessons and for independent work on KS3/KS4 Citizenship, A-Level General Studies and pastoral work

Thursday, 12 November 2015

PRESS right-wing coverage of para Bloody Sunday arrest

NOTE: this contains a range of complex terms, useful for much more than a General Studies exam. If you are a Media student you will in time be familiar with all of these, but can apply these in a range of subjects.

Nifty bit of content analysis (a 'quantitative,' objective' as opposed to subjective [eg semiotics] research methodology) by Roy Greenslade, reviewing how the story of a British soldier's arrest for murdering civilians in Bloody Sunday was treated.

Greenslade notes how the headlines of three right-wing papers focus on the anger of those opposed to the arrest.

He delves deeper, comparing a count of those quoted who are opposed to the number of relatives of the dead quoted, highlighting the stark disparity.

CHOMSKY AND THE PROPAGANDA MODEL

This, by the way, meshes well with a classic political economy approach, the framework laid out in Chomsky's propaganda model. He proposed that five filters ensure that counter-hegemonic ideas (information or arguments that might undermine the power base of ruling elites - it is Marxist influenced) are filtered out of media discourse; the media function not to underpin democracy but to undermine it. One filter is anti-left-wing propaganda, which we can see very clearly with the hysterical, rabid coverage of Jeremy Corbyn (let's not forget the very timid Ed Miliband, judged to be very right-wing by the Political Compass site, was dubbed Red Ed for his supposedly extreme leftist views!). Another is source strategies: selecting and highlighting sources favourable to the interests of the establishment.